“As my parents assured me, I began writing before I knew the alphabet. I wrote little stories about princes and dragons with crayon and read them to my parents. But I would be able to repeat the stories from my pages word for word. Unfortunately I forgot how to read these stories after I was taught real letters. Today I am striving to get back with my writing to this level of contentment.”
Born in Leipzig, East Germany, in 1971, Jakob studied Medicine in Berlin, Boston and Stockholm and he is currently working as a child psychiatrist in the Berlin hospital Charité. His first novel, Mein erstes T-Shirt (My First T-shirt) a semi-autobiographical book about growing up in a suddenly unified Germany, was published by Piper in 2001 to much critical acclaim. His second book, Forms of Humans Living Together (Formen menschlichen Zusammenlebens )(2003) deals with his experiences in America. His latest novel, Maybe it is even beautiful (Vielleicht ist es sogar schön), published by Piper in 2004, focuses on his mother, her bout with cancer, and her death. Jörg Magenau says of this work that “what appeared to be casual nonchalance and endearing simplicity has matured to a strength that has proven itself in the face of death.”
